The present invention relates to marine gasket maintenance and more particularly to their room temperature repair.
Marine bulkhead doors and hatches necessarily must maintain a water-tight seal when they are closed. Typically, a water-tight seal is obtained by an elastomeric (usually rubber-based) gasket which the outer periphery of the door or hatch presses against when dogs or other closure mechanism latches the door or hatch closed. The water-tight (and sometimes air-tight) seal relies on the elasticity of the gasket conforming to the door or hatch that is in contact therewith. Over time, however, the gasket can become permanently grooved. When this happens, the seal is difficult to maintain.
Heretofore, the gaskets required replacing when their sealing effectiveness was compromised. It will be observed that sterilizers and other pressurized vessels similarly function utilizing sealing gaskets which mate with doors. The same lack of sealing integrity of the sealing gasket befalls such sterilizer gaskets also. If the gaskets could be repaired in place, their longevity would be improved as would the economics since only torn or eroded areas would need to be repaired.